Top Use Cases for Threat Intelligence

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Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs) help organizations quickly understand, anticipate, and mitigate threats. With cyberattacks becoming far more frequent, subtle, and sophisticated, the ability to quickly harness and operationalize threat intelligence is critical. From protecting sensitive data to securing entire infrastructures, TIPs like Anomali ThreatStream provide a crucial layer of defense.

This blog post illustrates five critical use cases for TIPs, referencing real-world examples that highlight how organizations can effectively leverage threat intelligence to enhance their security posture.

1. Proactive Threat Detection and Prevention

Proactively identifying and preventing security threats before they cause harm is a game changer. Historically, organizations focused on reactive defenses, essentially closing the barn door after the cow escaped. A proactive stance minimizes the risk of breaches, mitigates downtime, and protects overall brand reputation by safeguarding data and operations.

Investing in a TIP like Anomali ThreatStream enables businesses to stay comfortably ahead of the curve. By quickly gathering and analyzing vast amounts of global threat intelligence, security teams identify emerging trends and potential vulnerabilities early, fortifying their defenses before they become targets.

TIPs collect and correlate threat data from a wide range of sources, such as open-source intelligencefeeds (OSINT), commercial/premium feeds, and internal log/telemetry data. TIPs analyze this data using advanced techniques, such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), to identify subtle patterns indicative of an impending attack.

Anomali ThreatStream aggregates intelligence on known malicious IP addresses, URLs, domains, and file hashes, enabling automated correlation with an organization’s network traffic and internal telemetry. ThreatStream integrates with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, allowing organizations to prioritize and act on high-confidence indicators of compromise (IoCs). By feeding enriched threat intelligence into automated response workflows, security teams can block malicious actors before they cause any damage.

An overview of a contextualized threat in Anomali ThreatStream
Fig. 1  Threatstream provides an immediate view into enriched, contextualized threats

2. Accelerated Incident Response

Quick and effective incident response is a critical aspect of cybersecurity strategy. A slow response (“slow,” meaning anything other than immediate) may lead to significant financial losses, legal liabilities, and reputational damage.  

Threat intelligence plays a key role in accelerating the incident response process, providing real-time context that allows security teams to identify, contain, and mitigate threats faster. By integrating TIPs into incident response workflows, businesses minimize the time from detection to resolution (MTTR), reducing the impact of security incidents and maintaining business continuity.

TIPs streamline incident response by automatically enriching alerts with actionable intelligence. Anomali ThreatStream, for instance, offers integrations with Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms, allowing for the automation of key tasks such as identifying IoCs and mapping them to known adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

In a typical workflow, a TIP enriches alerts with external intelligence, indicating whether the detected threat is part of a larger campaign. This triggers automated workflows to isolate affected systems, contain the threat, and begin remediation efforts.

For example, when ThreatStream detects a phishing attempt, it will identify if the sender’s IP or domain is associated with previous phishing campaigns. If so, ThreatStream will automatically escalate the incident, block the domain, and notify the security team.

An overview of mapping events to threat models in ThreatStream
Figure 2. Map events to specific threat models with full, contextualized correlation

3. Vulnerability Management Enhancement

For obvious reasons, cybercriminals exploit known vulnerabilities to launch attacks. Managing these vulnerabilities is a daunting task, especially when dealing with large, complex, and often dynamic IT infrastructures. A failure to identify and prioritize critical vulnerabilities may leave key systems exposed, risking significant financial and operational harm.

TIPs enhance vulnerability management by providing insights into which vulnerabilities are actively being exploited by threat actors. This enables organizations to prioritize patching and mitigation efforts based on real-world threats, rather than on theoretical risk.  

TIPs also collect intelligence on vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited in the wild. They track exploit kits, campaigns, and malware that leverage these vulnerabilities, security teams with a precise understanding of their risk profile.

If a TIP detects that a particular vulnerability is targeted by a ransomware group, it alerts the organization’s vulnerability management system. Security teams prioritize patching that vulnerability, minimizing their exposure to the most pressing threats.

Integrating TIPs with vulnerability management platforms allows for automated updates to patch management workflows. This ensures that critical patches are applied swiftly and less critical vulnerabilities are addressed by priority. This must be automated since volume and speed requirements make it impossible to achieve manually.  

An overview of actionable threat visibility in ThreatStream
Fig. 3  Gain immediate, actionable visibility at a granular level on specifics of attack vectors

4. Threat Hunting

While automated detection systems are essential, human-driven threat hunting remains a vital to identifying sophisticated, stealthy attacks. Businesses rely on threat hunting to uncover hidden threats that might evade traditional defenses, helping them maintain robust protection, even against advanced persistent threats (APTs).

TIPs equip threat hunters with the intelligence they need to investigate potential threats proactively, improving the organization’s overall security posture.

Threat hunting involves manual and semi-automated processes where security analysts search for IoCs across their networks. An analyst can use ThreatStream’s intelligence feeds to search for specific IoCs or behaviors linked to a known adversary group. ThreatStream’s historical data can be used to identify whether any previous network traffic or activity matches known attack signatures or TTPs. This allows threat hunters to pinpoint malicious activity that may have gone unnoticed.

Additionally, TIPs support hypothesis-driven hunting, where analysts can work with assumptions based on known attack vectors and use intelligence to validate or dismiss potential threats. This helps organizations increase the effectiveness of their threat hunting efforts, uncovering even the most elusive threats.

An overview of MITRE ATT&CK mapping in ThreatStream
Fig 4. Map correlated threats to your attack surface to specific MITRE ATT&CK frameworks

5. Third-Party Risk Management

Due to increasingly interconnected business ecosystems (such as supply chains), third-party risk management has become a priority. Organizations rely on a vast network of vendors, partners, and service providers, all of whom may introduce security risks. A data breach at a third-party supplier may have severe consequences, including expanded downstream effects, regulatory fines, loss of customer trust, and business interruption. The MOAB breach is a perfect cautionary tale.  

TIPs enable organizations to monitor the cybersecurity posture of third parties, providing security teams with visibility into whether any of their vendors have been compromised or are vulnerable to attack, helping them assess the potential risks these partners may pose to their own networks. They also provide continuous monitoring of third-party networks and digital assets.

For example, Anomali ThreatStream alerts the organization if a vendor’s network is involved in malicious activity or if its IP addresses are detected in a botnet. This allows the security team to take proactive steps, such as isolating communication with the vendor until the issue is resolved.

Anomali’s ability to aggregate intelligence from various sources, including dark web forums and closed threat intelligence communities, also provides organizations with early warnings of potential third-party risks. Integrating this intelligence into a third-party risk management (TPRM) platform or vendor risk assessment process helps organizations make informed decisions about their partners.

Drive Better Decision-Making with Anomali ThreatStream

TIPs like Anomali ThreatStream offer significant advantages by enabling businesses to be more proactive in their defense strategies. Whether it’s enhancing incident response, improving vulnerability management, aiding in threat hunting, or managing third-party risks, these platforms provide both technical depth and actionable insights that drive better decision-making.

By leveraging threat intelligence, organizations protect themselves more effectively against evolving cyber threats, ensuring not only the security of their systems but also the continuity and success of their business operations.